About this project

Calamityware dinner plate 3

$100,116

pledged of $15,000 goal

2,211

backers

Missed this project? You can still find this and other Calamityware plates at BuyCalamityware.com

________I like drawings that make me laugh. When I inherited a traditional Blue Willow-pattern plate, I just had to redraw it and add a dinosaur. As I drew more plates and added more calamities—UFOs, Sasquatch, and volcanoes—folks urged me to produce real dinner plates. A Kickstarter project was born.

The first two Kickstarter projects went well (flying monkeys and giant robot), so here is the third project in what might turn out to be a long series. This design includes a hungry sea monster who appears to have escaped from the wild areas of an early Renaissance map. Imagine finding that bad boy behind your fish sticks!

Preparing prototype for pie test

The final production plates will feature a rich blue image on white porcelain. You can hang it on your wall or use it for dinner (food safe, microwave safe, dishwasher safe). Makes a flabbergasting gift.

If we get enough sponsors, the craftspeople at Bryan China Company (New Castle, PA, USA) will transfer the drawing to full-size dinner plates and fire them at 1500 degrees to permanently fuse the image to the porcelain. I expect to ship these plates before the end of August 2014. Perhaps sooner.

Series continues. I’m committed to producing at least six plate designs in this series. If sponsors remain enthusiastic, I’ll go to 12.

If you missed the previous Kickstarter projects and want to address a gap in your Calamityware plate collection, you’ll find a limited number of plates at BuyCalamityware.com

Will all the plates in this series match? No. The designs of the plate borders and central image will be very different. It’s also possible that the exact size of the plates and the shade of blue will shift slightly because the plates, transfers, and firing are going to be happening at different times, months apart. If you are a perfectionist about color matching, you should order a set of matching dishes with the same design on all. Even then, you might see a little variation. Welcome to the real world.

How can I get a set of six plates with different designs? If you want each of your guests to have a different calamity, the best way is to sponsor six or more separate, successive Kickstarter projects. I’m trying to space them 90 days apart. So it is going to take a while. But the wait will be worthwhile, right?

Risks and challenges

Now that I have already done two of these Kickstarter projects, I’m beginning to understand some of the things that can go wrong. The world is full of calamities, so why should the world of Calamityware plates be any different?

The technology of producing porcelain plates is sound. But every other part of the project is vulnerable to calamity, mishap, and fiasco. I’ve already figured out how to cope with delays, broken plates, flawed addresses, and slow-motion couriers. What next?

I give you my word, I will work tirelessly to get everyone their Calamityware 3 plates as soon as possible. It’ll probably be early August—in plenty of time for holiday gift giving if you live in North America. But some international orders will take a very long time to arrive. I don't know why, but they do.